Choc Chip Cookie Bars (vegan + GF) + 5K

YEEEESSSSSS this happened and they are SO GOOD!!! These are probably one of the best things I’ve ever made. The texture is perfect. Thick like a brownie, good texture, soft but dense, gooey and most important: chocolaty!!

As I was eating one of these bars for breakfast (yes, really) I thought to myself: Does anyone really like oatmeal raisin cookies? If you do please comment and let me know! I know there was a time in the early 90’s when I pretended to like oatmeal raisin because we were told it was the healthier option but now that we don’t live under such false pretenses I don’t know anyone that chooses oatmeal raisin over chocolate chip.

Anyway, before I get to the recipe, I ran another trail 5K last weekend! Here I am at the finish with my “trainer”.

This time my hubby was in town so he and Rocco came to support me which was exciting 🙂 Rocco didn’t run the race even though it was a dog friendly race. He’s fast but he gets distracted by people and dogs, plus I didn’t want him to get trampled!

Like the last race, this one was a lot of fun. It was a much bigger event so there were a lot of people. The course wasn’t as steep which meant I couldn’t go super fast on the downhill. Actually I swear there wasn’t any downhill on this course. It felt like it was uphill the entire way! I finished 9th in my age group out of 50 some ladies. I feel pretty good about that because I have never trained for speed. I’ve always trained for the Long Slow Distance and I didn’t grow up running and was certainly never on any Cross Country or Track team. I’m hoping to do at least one more this summer but we’ll see!

Yum Yum Yum

Alright, this recipe. I want to believe it’s healthy because there isn’t any flour in it AND there is an entire can of beans in there (I swear you can’t taste them). But there’s also 1.5 cups of chocolate chips so they kind of cancel each other out 😉 You can totally eat this stuff raw too! If you don’t plan on baking it just leave out the baking soda and baking powder and then you can roll it into balls and freeze or refrigerate it. I haven’t tried using the dough to make regular cookies but I’m pretty confident you could if you wanted to.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (vegan + gluten free)

Ingredients

1 can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (omit if just making “dough”)

1 teaspoon baking powder (omit if just making “dough”)

1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips (I use enjoy life brand)

Place all ingredients except for the chocolate chips in a food processor. Process until smooth scraping the sides down as necessary. There should be no chunks for the garbanzo beans left and the dough should be very smooth and sticky.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the chocolate chips.

If baking, line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper. Scrape the mixture into the baking pan and smooth it out. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for at least 30 minutes before removing from pan.

That’s it for now! 2 posts in 2 weeks is pretty good for me! I’ll be back soon with a DIY laundry detergent recipe I’m super excited about!